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Universal Postal Union

One of the oldest specialized agencies of United Nations, Universal Postal Union was established in 1857 which coordinates and frames postal policies around the world through contributions from its member states. Universal Postal Union is also known as UPU and is headquartered in Bern, Switzerland. It's the second oldest organization worldwide. UPU currently has 192 member states. Any non-member would require the consent of 2/3rd of the members in United Nations General Assembly. Universal Postal Union consists of four main organs which are explained a sunder:

 

1. The Congress

It's the apex organ of the organization and meets once in every four years. The Congress is a gathering of delegation from all 192 countries which meets to discuss and work on the future of postal sector. Member countries will elect the next UPU director general and deputy director general and settle on the membership of the UPU's Council of Administration and Postal Operations Council for (2021-2024).

 

2. The Council of Administration

This organ consists of a council of 41 member states that meet once in every year. The Council makes sure the continuity of the UPU's work flanked by Congresses, administers its activities and studies regulatory, administrative, legislative and legal issues. Since the Congress meets once in every four years which is a long time period, Council of Administration has power to approve operations of and by Postal Operations Council for new procedure, protocols and policies. Council oversees almost all functions to be approved by the Congress like yearly reports, budget etc. Council of Administration also oversees technical assistance amongst members.

3. The Postal Operations Council

This organ looks after the technical and operational functions performed in Universal Postal Union. This council has its own chair and meets once every year. Postal Operations Council consists of 40 elected members of the Congress. This organs also works towards modernization and development of international postal services. Within its own capacities, Postal Operations Council issues advisory guidelines to states for postal sector development in departments of operations and technology.

 

 

4. The International Bureau

The International Bureau is the secretariat of UPU headquartered in Bern, Switzerland. It assists portal services in each country through its regional offices located in different parts of the world. Fulfilling a secretariat function, the International Bureau provides logistical and technical support to the UPU's bodies. It serves as an office of liaison, information and consultation, and promotes technical cooperation among Union members. In recent years, the International Bureau has taken on a stronger leadership role in certain activities. These include the application of postal technology through its Postal Technology Centre, the development of postal markets through potential growth areas such as direct mail and EMS, and the monitoring of quality of service on a global scale.

UPU's Standards Board comes up with international standards for postal services frequently to improve postal services around the world. The Standards Board warrants that articulate regulations are developed in areas such as electronic data interchange (EDI), mail encoding, postal forms and meters. UPU standards are drafted in accordance with the rules given in Part V of the "General information on UPU Standards" and are published by the UPU International Bureau in accordance with Part VII of that publication.

The Universal Postal Union, in juxtaposition with the World Association for the Development of Philately, developed the WADP Numbering System. This was launched on 1st January 2002. This website displays entries for 160 countries and issuing postal entities, with more than 25,000 stamps registered since 2002. Many of them have images, which generally remain copyrighted by the issuing country, but the UPU and WADP permit them to be downloaded.

UPU issued regulations concerned with stamp design, intended to ensure maximum efficiency in handling international mail towards the end of the nineteenth century. One of these rules explained that stamp values have to be given in numerals, as denominations written out in letters were not universally understandable. Another required member nations to use the same colours on their stamps issued for post cards (green), normal letters (red) and international mail (blue), a system that remained in use for several decades and made the process whole lot easier. UPU became a specialized agency of the UN in 1948 after its foundation. It is presently the one of the oldest international organizations after the the Rhine Commission and the International Telecommunication Union.

 

 

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